From their start in a cramped attic in Massachusetts to becoming North America’s most popular email marketing platform, Constant Contact is primed for more growth by renewing their focus on providing some of the most easy and powerful do-it-yourself tools for small to medium businesses. Behind a next-generation editor and best-in-class deliverability rates, Constant Contact enables users to easily reach more potential customers.

As consumers get frustrated with chaotic news feeds filled with unreliable sources and time-starved marketers struggle to show the business impact of social engagements, both are turning to email to get the information they need.

For some reason, a lot of small business owners are reluctant to directly ask their customers for referrals. The reality is you can’t keep your business afloat without a steady stream of customers. And spikes and droughts in activity create a whole other set of problems, including an inability to cultivate relationships with the types of customers you want to engage.

Don’t assume a head hung low is necessarily a bad thing. These days, it usually means your customers are buried deep in their mobile devices. You can expect a lot more of this as the amount of emails opened on smartphones continues to climb.

You might think it’s a bad thing to be put on “blast,” or to be called a “drip” (that’s how kids these days talk, right?), but when it comes to email marketing, these terms have a very different meaning.

One of the main reasons customers prefer to shop at small businesses is because of the personal touch they get from the owner. Yet maintaining a level of personalization and sustaining a customer’s interest between visits is challenging, not to mention time-consuming, if only a percentage of people who enter a business or visit a website become steady customers.

Today everybody can publicly give a thumbs up or down to each customer experience. Whether you’re an Uber driver or a brain surgeon, you have to accept that online reviews are now built into the buying process. Since you know customers are already going to talk behind your back, you want to make sure your business lands on the right side of reviews.

As publishers look for new ways to monetize their audiences, email newsletters have moved to center stage. At the Washington Post, more than 75 vertical-specific newsletters are written by a team of reporters, leading to a 129% increase in website traffic over the past year. Buzzfeed had seen similar successes, with email now ranking ahead of Twitter and Pinterest for referral traffic....

You don’t have to wait for a cash mob to suddenly appear in your doorway. Instead, you can create your own. The trick is to not make it all about your business. Rather, it’s about raising awareness in your community about the importance of supporting local businesses and nonprofits.